Green Bay Packers: Scouting remains a strength

INDIANAPOLIS -- It was past 5 p.m. and inside the Indianapolis Convention Center Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson was heading back to work, walking down an empty hallway toward a roped off area where only NFL personnel are allowed.

Had it been 30 minutes prior, he would have been marching upstream to his destination, working through the traffic of players, scouts and coaches heading for their hotels before spending their per diem on a nice meal.

Thompson works hard when he comes to the NFL's annual scouting combine, in part because he knows only one way, but also because he's short-staffed for the third year in a row. It is becoming a rite of January that one of Thompson's trusted personnel staff leaves to become a general manager.

In 2011, John Schneider left for Seattle. In 2012, Reggie McKenzie left for Oakland. And a month ago, John Dorsey left for Kansas City.

In each case, they left just as the scouts were preparing for the combine, a club's only opportunity to see draft-eligible players do the exact same drills under the exact same conditions. It isn't as critical as all the visits the scouts made to colleges during the season and the reports they wrote, but it is an important part of the process.

"Certainly it does affect you," Thompson said on his way to conduct hours of interviews with the draft prospects. "You lose good people, it impacts you. But I think everybody understands that the Packers have been extraordinarily fortunate having these guys since the early '90s.

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"I went away and came back. John (Schneider) went away and came back. But we were all able to work together again, and I think that was very fortunate for me."

These weren't just ordinary losses. These were guys who grew up together in the talent evaluation business, getting their start under former general manager and mentor Ron Wolf.

But as Wolf did when Thompson and Schneider left, Thompson has put trust in a system where cultivating and grooming evaluators is as important as picking players. And so Thompson plans to tap into the same kind of talent pool Wolf had created in the '90s to help him overcome such losses.

"It's sort of the next man up and that's what we're trying to do," Thompson said. "We feel like it's Ron's blueprint. I think that's the way you do business."

Veteran scout Alonzo Highsmith, whose college scouting expertise as well as vast connections in the business have helped the Packers land players like Donald Driver and Charles Woodson, was moved up to senior personnel executive last year. He likely will have added responsibilities and become involved more in the big picture of managing the organization.

In addition, Brian Gutekunst, who was promoted from an area scout last year to director of college scouting when McKenzie left, will be called upon to do more. And so will Eliot Wolf, who was elevated last year to director of pro personnel and has been instrumental in the team acquiring a number of unknown free agent gems like running back DuJuan Harris.

"Alonzo and Gutie are very good college evaluators, and they're guys who are not hardheaded," Schneider said. "If you ask them questions, those guys can answer them and listen to what you say. Eliot has been around awhile now, too.

"Ted works his butt off, so between those guys they'll get it done."

Thompson isn't the only one facing a key loss in the personnel department. San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke allowed personnel director Tom Gamble to leave for a higher position with the Philadelphia Eagles, leaving him minus one very valuable evaluator.

But Baalke said the draft process is a team effort.

"You miss an awfully loyal, awfully qualified individual that helps you set your board, helps you through free agency and the like," said Baalke, who could have easily been talking about Thompson's feelings with losing Dorsey. "But at the same time, it's never one person. It's not me, it's not Tom.

"We just got through 17 days of draft meetings and setting the board, so it's never one. It's just like we say with players: it's next man up, let's go."

Thompson will benefit from the labor Dorsey put in during the season because all the reports he did on players are reflected in the position of the players on their draft board. By the time the college season is done, the board has been well-established.

What happens between now and April is that the board gets adjusted based on information from the combine and pro day workouts as well as long discussions inside the draft room. Not having Dorsey around might affect Thompson the most on draft day because like Schneider and McKenzie, he was experienced at working the phones for trade possibilities.

"Ted's been through it so many times," Schneider said. "You get the board set up with your staff during the year and then you just work it and work it. He's done that before. The difference is draft day. I don't know who will be on the phones calling teams and things like that."

Specifically what Dorsey brought to the draft room was unrelenting pursuit of background information on every player, making sure the Packers were getting exactly what they thought they were getting. His strengths are different from Schneider's, whose talents are different from McKenzie's.

Thompson's job will be to tap into what Highsmith, Gutekunst and Wolf do best and get the most from them.

He still has veteran scouts in Sam Seale, Lee Gissendaner, Tim Terry, Jon-Eric Sullivan and John Wojciechowski. He has begun the process of filling vacant spots with young scouting prospects like Glenn Cook, Mike Owen, Chad Brinker and Richmond Williams.

In theory, the system created by Wolf and enhanced by Thompson should keep running well after Thompson has retired. But it will depend on Highsmith and Gutekunst and the others filling the shoes of Schneider, McKenzie and Dorsey, and passing on their knowledge to the next group of evaluators.

"I think really that Ron and Ted have different personalities, but I think we were blessed to work with guys who were extremely thorough, who had a wide range of philosophies," Schneider said. "The Packers will be fine. Great organization. They'll be good."